Electronic documents may be protected. For example, an electronic document may be accessible by use of a communications network that may employ the Internet. The accessibility may be controlled, such as by controlling the capability to open, edit, save and/or print the electronic document, for example. Access to an electronic document may be controlled by applying a policy to the electronic document. A policy may comprise a set of document control rules that may define rights associated with an electronic document. For example, the rights may include rights granted to particular users, such as the right to access, edit, save and/or print the electronic document. Additionally, the set of document control rules may include a list of users that may be granted the rights, and/or may include a set of restrictions on how and/or when one or more rules may apply to an electronic document, for example. In one embodiment, a policy may be applied to multiple electronic documents. For a variety of reasons, it may be desirable to extend a policy to include additional features.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.